UEFA Champions League

HONG KONG — Iranian striker Issa Alekasir has been handed a six-month ban by the Asian Football Confederation for a “discriminatory gesture” just hours before he was due to lead his club Persepolis into the semifinals of the Asian Champions League.

The 30-year-old forward, who has scored four times in the last three games in the competition, received the ban after making a slant-eyed gesture to television cameras after scoring against Uzbekistan’s Pakhtakor in the quarterfinals on Wednesday evening.

The clubs competing in the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League group stage have been announced and boy oh boy do we have some great games to look forward to. Let’s skip the chit-chat and show you the full look of the groups and the takeaways.

The official result of the #UCLdraw!

Most exciting group stage match? pic.twitter.com/d7ynuEjPq3

SALONIKA, Greece — Danish side Midtjylland qualified for the Champions League group stage for the first time in stunning fashion on Wednesday after scoring three goals in the last seven minutes to beat more fancied Slavia Prague 4-1 on aggregate in their playoff tie.

They were joined by Russians Krasnodar, who ground down PAOK Salonika 2-1 in the return leg in Greece after beating them by the same score last week, while Salzburg eased to a 3-1 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv for a 5-2 overall victory.

Lazio has tied down midfield star Luis Alberto to a new five-year contract. 

Alberto has looked a player reborn since moving to the Italian capital from Liverpool, where he made just 12 appearances in a three-year spell. The Spaniard was a key aspect of Lazio's title charge last season which eventually fell short, seeing the Romans finish fourth. He finished the campaign with 15 assists in Serie A, behind only Atalanta's Papu Gomez.

In Champions League playoff action, Ukraine's Dynamo Kyiv will take on Belgian side Gent on Tuesday in the second leg of their tie. 

Hello @DynamoKyiv #dyngnt #UCL pic.twitter.com/shCYEGhHai

BUDAPEST — Bayern Munich beat Sevilla 2-1 after extra time on Thursday to lift the UEFA Super Cup and complete a quadruple under coach Hansi Flick, in the first European game played with fans in the stands since the sport returned amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Substitute Javi Martinez headed in the winner in the 104th minute after Europa League winners Sevilla had taken a 13th-minute lead through Lucas Ocampos's penalty and Bayern levelled through Leon Goretzka in the 34th.

Al-Hilal — three-time winner of the AFC Champions League and last season’s champion — has withdrawn from this season’s competition after failing to field enough players for a group stage match. The 16-time Saudi Professional League champion has been hammered with cases of Covid-19 and attempted to field a lineup that had three goalkeepers, eight outfield players and no substitutes.

After every season, UEFA gives out a litany of awards honoring the best performers. Honors like the goalkeeper of the season, forward of the season and coach of the season are handed out to the elite men’s and women’s players/coaches. The UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award turns the most heads as it is essentially a less glorified Ballon d’Or award.

BUDAPEST — When Hungarian and European football leaders invited Hungarian ambulance workers to the continent's first major international match open to fans since the COVID-19 pandemic began, 500 paramedics jumped at the chance to attend Thursday's Super Cup.

Champions League winners Bayern Munich of Germany and Europa League champions Sevilla of Spain meet at Budapest's Puskas Arena in a game that European football's governing body UEFA considers a safety test of games with spectators.

Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder on Monday urged Bayern Munich fans not to travel to the UEFA Super Cup final against Sevilla in Budapest this week or risk turning the event into a hotbed for COVID-19 to spread.

The German champions, who won the Champions League, face Europa League winners Sevilla in the Hungarian capital on Thursday.

"My stomach hurts thinking about the Super Cup. Budapest is a risk area. We have to be very careful that we don't risk turning it into a football-Ischgl," he said.